It beats being negative about it before it even happens. What's the point of that? Tons of folks here are just laying down and dying as Laker fans and we aren't there yet. Hard to watch, really.
If we make mistakes on the roster, we can just change the next year since half the team is on 1 year contracts LOL
That comment was from like a month ago but okay. When several of us pointed this out in the beginning we were constantly criticized for being too negative. I even changed my pic to Darth Vader after being told multiple times I'd gone to the dark side. NOW suddenly everyone wants to chime in on it. Okay guys, whatever. How many times were myself, @abeer3 and several others completely shut down for pointing out that "the new plan is the old plan" and questioning them for not bringing in West who wanted to come back and help? How many times did we question the development and shipping off of our young players? (People just stopped called DLO a bust like a month or two ago and piled on for months after we shipped him off) How many times did we question: playing time? rotations? letting one group of guys get away with murder while having a short leash on others? preaching culture on one end while keeping guys like Pope while he was literally serving a jail sentence? I'm just going to stop here before I rant too long. My comment stands. We don't have experience in multiple levels of the front office. That's just the reality of the situation we're in right now. We need to hope these guys learn and grow because they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
I scoffed at the critics for the roster construction and did not expect this season outcome but I agree with most of what you have posted. We developed Randle well enough but then dont get anything out of him long term, they did a poor job with Dlo but that trade had to be made IMO, he was not willing to play his role there multiple occasions in his 2nd yr where you wonder wtf is he trying to prove (nights where he'd only take 2-3 shots and being passive)...my biggest agreement has to be the "new plan=old plan" but most keep defending Magic because he got James on board but the 1yr signing has shown once again it DOES NOT WORK!!!
To be fair I think everybody though wtf with Lance and Beas, McGee and Rondo we thought could be reasonable.
Looking through my rosy glasses, I seem to see Magic call into question Westhead's coaching strategy, which led to Riles running the Show...4 titles later...and some still want to ignore Magic's business acumen and proven winning strategies to focus on random comments he made. Magic wanted to go away from Westhead, and tried to reinvent the wheel by siding with a novice assistant coach in Riles, who favored doing things different... something the league wasnt doing at the time. If Magic doesn't do that, then maybe no Showtime era...man, as a Laker fan that woulda been brutal. Magic made endearing comments towards Jah as well, but did we sign dude when he was available...and did we try to trade for him this year or when he was in Philly? Maybe he should have. When dude gets 30-39 minutes this year, he avgs 21pts and 11rbs.
You're using a decision he made almost 40 years ago in a completely different era (an era he was actually playing in so he knew what HIS particular game needed) to counter things he said in the last few years?
From his Twitter, he clearly liked Jah...alot! Jah was a free agent this last summer. McGee and Zu were our only legit centers at that time. Were we ever linked in getting him? I actually think Jah would have been a good get for us last summer... especially at the minimum. Still, just cause he says stuff on Twitter, doesn't mean it's gospel and he follows up on it. You want to pick him apart from his Twitter feed nearly a decade ago...well, show me the things he has actually acted on and done from his commentary using that medium. That's all I'm saying. Oh btw what's that about MCW... Damn, Magic about to sign dude. My bad Savs, he does act on his Twitter commentary.
I think the point is that he's impulsive and a poor talent evaluator. He can't keep his trap shut, and that's evidenced by his plethora of fines over the years when being a Laker executive. He's a great leader. He's a great player. He's a great cheerleader. He's a great businessman. He's unproven in his current role, but he delivered one big fish. Unfortunately it's not enough, and unless he can assemble a winning team, he won't be here more than a couple of years. Still, if I'm Jeannie, I probably take the chance on "Magic" because of their history, and the fact that they both hated Jim with a passion lol. For many he still represents all of the best of the P & G, and was the greatest PG of all time. I think what we are experiencing is the pain of a learning curve, and it has to be expected when neither of the two guys suddenly thrust into their front office roles had any experience assembling rosters. Being a great salesman and being a salary cap wiz kid does not equal the ability to put together a great roster. Maybe they need to bring in that piece, tell Bron to shut the hell up and stay in his lane, ban Klutch from the arena, get better training staff, and a coach that can maximize his talent and adjust his system. Eff the Lebron system.
I mean, is that really the argument? Obviously he's not going to sign them now because the world has seen how wrong he was, but the scary part is if he was in charge at the time and he had a shot at those players, he likely would have drafted them. Its the fact that he said these things when he was NOT in charge. "If Brandon Knight were to come out, I would take him number 1 in the draft." But Magic wasn't in a position to take him #1 in the draft. Now he potentially IS in a position to make decisions. That's what's scary. You can't look at his opinion 7 years ago and assume he still has the same opinion of those players.
The argument is that Magic's old tweets are being used to defame him as a current Laker exec, when at the time of his tweets he was speaking on the Lakers as a fan and not as a Laker exec. What's likely is that had Magic been in power before, he probably would have handed the keys to Phil, especially seeing how Kob & Pau were already triangle guys and Dwight would fall right in line...but instead they went with the Nash whisperer. Then goes Kob's Achilles all while ostracizing Pau (who along with Dwight, we lost for nothing)....and that was not potentially scary....that was actually scary. In terms of Magic potentially picking a "Brandon Knight" type with our top pick... here's what actually happens. Take it away Jesse: You can go at Magic on alot of things. He's not blameless in any of this...but what some of y'all doing...forget the rosy glasses...y'all seeing red! (I blame the Avengers trailers)
Sharks circling Pelinka. Agree with Stephen A though. We need to bring in a veteran front office guy to assist him and probably shift Pelinka’s role.
I had already said people around the league seem to hate Pelinka...it seems like its true. He was the agent of Carlos Boozer that promised the Cavs to re-sign with them long-term if they opt out of Boozer's contract and then signed with the Jazz. His reputation has taken a serious hit then. If a player does that (DJ) its terrible but if an agent does that...nobody wants to deal with him. All the players he has signed...he has done so by overpaying. Rondo isn't worth 9 mio. Stephenson isn't worth 4 mio. Beasley wasn't worth 3,5 mio. KCP is nowhere near 18 or 12 mio. McGee was the only cheap guy but that was his market value. Nobody expected him to be as good as he has been.
This was bad ( the video) . If you could only make one change , you would change the owner , certainly not the coach ( only the 4th change in this case) You always have to look at the top . Knicks mainly suck because of Dolan , Suns because of Sarver, Lakers because of Jeanie . It's not rocket science . This is why I can't be positive about the Lakers going forward . It's unfortunately that simple
Pelinka does in fact seem to have been a mistake. It’s almost like if someone hired Scott Boras or Drew Rosenhaus to be GM of a baseball or football team. Teams don’t like those guys, fellow GMs for sure had to not like Rob. So many qualified candidates and Jeannie just hires the first guy Kobe throws out there, you can’t just listen to your friends, you have to do a true search for the most qualified people. The Jerry West ship has sailed too, he wanted to come and we said no, not for sure, for absolutely sure Magic and Rob need to bring in help. I’m not sure that they have the egos that will allow them to do so though, Magic has probably been surrounded by yes men for decades.
In Magic’s defense, I think he’s done exactly that with his business ventures over the years. I think hubris ruled last year but expect reality to cause him to make changes. I’m also not sure how personally tied he is to Rob. Rumor is Stephen A gets his info from Magic and there’s definitely been an increase in him pointing fingers at Pelinka. I honestly don’t think Magic will have a problem throwing Rob under the bus if he has to.
